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smirk-racing

What's currently in production?

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Hi all -

I spend a lot of time admiring the many absolutely beautiful models made by TC members, but when I google said model (perhaps to acquire one for myself) I find that the model is not readily available for sale or not in production.

Is there any resource which simply lists all the Tamiya models that are currently in production and which are *widely* available for sale? At times I am willing to buy a used model, source parts, perhaps even fabricate parts, etc, but at other times I simply want to buy something which is at least currently in production and available from normal commercial outlets (say, Tower Hobbies in the US, or Amazon, or even sellers on eBay who have new kits).

If there is no such resource, I wonder if we could collectively make and maintain one. I think it would be helpful for people who need easily available kits to fulfill their various model-buying needs.

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Without going into too much detail...

While I see the appeal of having a dynamic list of Tamiya RCs that are currently in production and widely available, there are at least two things to consider:

1. The only way I see such a resource being effective and remaining up to date is to automate it, using services (kind of like bots) that check availability of models online and aggregating this data to show some sort of availability 'score', which is possible, but would need some technical skill. Then updating it would only mean adding/removing online stores as they appear or disappear (which probably happens every six months or so), which is a lot more manageable than adding/removing individual models on a daily basis.

2. While that takes care of availability, I'm afraid trying to determine what's currently in production will be a lot harder, as Tamiya is not known for divulging this kind of data.

I'm sure there's more to it than this, and I'd be interested to hear other perspectives as well.

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I think one of the other issues here is how quickly things come and go and how unclear it is why they have done so.  Some re-res have stayed in production for what feels like ever (Hornet, Grasshopper), some are announced to great fanfare and then gone just as quickly (Terra Scorcher), some come, go, come back again (Novafox), and some might not be around but we're not sure if they're discontinued or if there are just supply issues (Black Edition Clod).

2020 was a particularly difficult year to keep track with various factories shutting down for long periods of time, and global shipping being disrupted, as well as higher demand than usual as people sought to occupy themselves at home - possibly compounded in the UK particularly, as it is rumoured the importer didn't order as many kits as usual for the first half of 2020 because they expected demand for luxuries to drop as a result of Brexit anxiety.

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I've been watching the various UK shops posting lists of the new stock they are getting and it really surprises me to see the things that are coming in. Buggies like the Zahhak and Dark Impact are still available despite being many years old and having questionable desirability.

Whether this is because of new production runs by Tamiya or the discovery of a few old pallets at the Hobby Company, I don't know.

To get a definitive list of what is in production will be basically impossible as Tamiya do not publish this to the public. In the RC world you quickly learn to buy the stuff you want while it is on the shelf, because once it has gone it may never come back.

 

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Since covid there sure isnt much available. It would be great if Tamiya could comment.

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6 hours ago, sosidge said:

I've been watching the various UK shops posting lists of the new stock they are getting and it really surprises me to see the things that are coming in. Buggies like the Zahhak and Dark Impact are still available despite being many years old and having questionable desirability.

Whether this is because of new production runs by Tamiya or the discovery of a few old pallets at the Hobby Company, I don't know.

To get a definitive list of what is in production will be basically impossible as Tamiya do not publish this to the public. In the RC world you quickly learn to buy the stuff you want while it is on the shelf, because once it has gone it may never come back.

 

Do you know of any UK shops with the Zahhak in stock at the moment? Been looking for one for ages! 

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1 hour ago, BuggyGuy said:

Do you know of any UK shops with the Zahhak in stock at the moment? Been looking for one for ages! 

racecraftrc.co.uk had them, can't see them on their site but they might have them on the shelf if you get in touch

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It would be nice if Tamiya's main website had information like this although it looks like it was built for Windows 95 and hasnt been updated

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I guess ultimately my question was less about whether a given kit was "officially" in production from Tamiya and more along the following lines:

1. can I get this kit easily, from multiple retailers or sources, at non-inflated prices (not debating or arguing with Tamiya's prices, just talking about avoiding incremental mark-up due to scarcity, for example from eBay sellers who think everything is rare and unique)

2. can i get sufficient parts support for this kit?

Those are the two major questions for those of us who want easy-to-acquire, easy-to-maintain runners/bashers. I have acquired rare kits before, and painstakingly restored them, but then I find I cannot bring myself to run them (because getting them in running condition in the first place was so hard). In contrast, I have no compunction about running and bashing my 'common' kits (traxxas, or even some widely-available Tamiya kits like the lunchbox).

I do agree with most of the comments, though, that this is a difficult question even under normal circumstances, and all the more so due to COVID.

Maybe we just start with something simple, and have a running thread in which people post about kits they know are for sale easily - like sosidge did above.

 

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